Jan 20, 2012 6:04 AM

I currently coach two teams at my local YMCA, a 1st and 2nd grade team and a 5th and 6th grade team. For my younger team I spend a majority of the practice on skills using drills from various resources. For that age group, I'm comfortable knowing that this is by far the most important thing to work on with my players. I try to keep the practice fun and vary activites as much as possible. We usually end each practice with a scrimmage where we reinforce rules of the game and skills developed during practice.

For my 5th/6th grade team I also like to spend time on skills but I'm having a problem balancing it with trying to teach them to play as a team, move without the ball, and look to pass when their shot is contested. The Y runs a fall and winter season and my fall team went 0-10-1 because the person running the league was new and didn't equally distribute the talent amongst the teams. We only practice one hour per week as per league rules and I need some suggestions to improve our team offense so I dont have to subject my son to another long losing season. I would like to teach them some motion offense concepts but here is my scenario. I have 3 decent "bigs" including my son. I also have 3 guards who are ok but tend to dribble up and force shots. We have to play everyone an equal amount of time and I have 2 players who make me nervous every time they touch the ball. I have 8 players on my team and we practice in a half gym with one hoop so any drills I run I have to include almost everyone in some fashion so they are not standing around. We have 9 games left and my goal is to win at least 3 or 4 and improve the skills of my players. I have used some 5v3 no dribbling drills in the past to emphasize movement and passing but I'm always looking for something new.

I feel for you coach! Been there with youth teams where I just didn't have the talent, and losing became a staple in our weekend diet of losing games. It's hard to explain things in writing ( kids are visual ), but here are some initial thoughts:

1) continue with building each kid's skills: ball handling, footwork, balance, layups, jump stops, pivots, defense, rebounding, and most importantly, PASSING! The way I approached it was the better skills my players have, the more chance I have to win as a collective.

2) Break down your motion offense. In other words, don't always practice the offense using all five players. Instead, use three players at a time. Take a single movement of the motion ( ie; top passes to the wing and cuts to the basket asking for the ball ) and make sure every detail is correct. ( how hard do they pass and what kind of pass should they give, timing, spacing, how they should cut, etc. ) After running 2 on 0 or 3 on 0, add defenders. It's easier for you to control and watch everyone's movements, rather that have 5 guys doing it only partially good.

3) Throw in a couple plays where there is only one action, thus being very easy to remember. You call them " quick hitters ". The best thing about these kinds of plays is it forces those players that keep the ball too long in their hands, to actually run a play.

4) Do drills that ( for example ) force your players to learn how to pass and move without the ball. First teach them how to v-cut to get the ball, or go away and come back to the ball ( make sure they are coming to the ball until the ball is in their hands and not to wait for the pass ) A good drill to teach passing and movement is a 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 full court game with no dribbling. The team with the ball has to advance the ball without dribbling, but may dribble the ball if they get it inside their 3-point line. Make sure that the defense understands that the offensive players cannot dribble outside their 3-point line, so they must put optimal pressure on the player with the ball. This forces the offensive player to be strong with their ball, make good passes, and use their pivot foot.

If you'd like an example of a quick-hitter, email me and I'll send you a PDF.

Go to www.basketballwithcoachbeez.com and find my email.

Good luck. Hope this helps!

Coach Beez

Yo, what up fools?: It's me, " THE MAN " , Zac Ryan. Even though I'm a cartoon character, I can still ball chump! So if you like basketball, then come check me out and read all my comic strips at:

Thanks for the repsonse. It reinforces what I do in practice each week. I'm glad to hear that what I'm doing is thought of as correct by another coach. I just need to contiue what I'm doing and implement what you suggested and hope we can pull off a couple wins against the other weaker teams. Our next two games are against the undefeated team and a team whose only loss is to the undefeated team. Next year I'm going to have my oldest son play in a town league where there is 3 evaluations before the players are assigned to teams and possibly coach there instead of at the YMCA.

It really is a shame that an organization like the Y couldn't try harder to balance the talent especially at the 5th and 6th grade level. It is their final opportunity to play in a developmental league before moving on to 7th/8th grade basketball which is school-based and has tryouts. Before the end of the season I plan to sit down with the director and offer some suggestions to improve the balance for next season because in my opinion a YMCA youth league should not have any teams that go undefeated nor have any teams that go winless.

I agree. Too often kids get the wrong idea. The ultimate goal ( as they say ) should be to teach kids how to try their best, how to work as a team, having the right attitude, etc......and winning or losing as by-products of that, but that in the end, that's not what's important. What is important is that they continue to apply those same principals mentioned above.

It's sort of like the classroom. Too much emphasis placed on the end result rather than core principles that make us good human beings.

Anyway, good luck in your games! If you'd like, I created a basketball website for kids and if you want to pass it along, feel free. I post new material every Thursday of the week:

www.zaciswack.com

Thanks again.

Coach Beez

Yo, what up fools?: It's me, " THE MAN " , Zac Ryan. Even though I'm a cartoon character, I can still ball chump! So if you like basketball, then come check me out and read all my comic strips at: